Pembroke Youth Scholars Programme Launched

On 19th November, the OxNet access initiative launched the Pembroke Youth Scholars programme during an online event led by Pembroke’s Access and Outreach team.

Designed and taught by a former teacher, Felix Slade, and jointly funded by Pembroke College Oxford and The Challenge Academy Trust in Warrington (TCAT), the Pembroke Youth Scholars course aims to develop lateral, incisive thinking skills in Year 10 disadvantaged pupils from TCAT schools.

The course, which currently accommodates 25 students, also aims to transform pupils’ academic trajectory.  It sets out to achieve this by sowing the seeds of academic ambition at an earlier stage of their education than many other university outreach programmes, making an eventual place at Oxford or another competitive university much more likely. Students on this inaugural year of the programme were selected from teacher nominations, with the final list decided by Pembroke based on a variety of access-to-education factors.

The theme of the OxNet academic course for the Youth Scholars is ‘Thinking about Thought’.  It is split into five discrete sessions, held once per half term:

•             The History of Thought

•             The Philosophy of Thought

•             The Science of Thought

•             The Language of Thought

•             Thought in the Arts

The first session was taught at the launch event by Pembroke’s Access Fellow and Senior Research Fellow in History, Dr Peter Claus. Speaking ahead of the event, Peter said “The Newtonian Origins of Marx will challenge these North West pupils to think radically out of the box and miles from the National Curriculum.  We hope that we will begin a process that will conclude in years to come with a credible application to Pembroke and Oxford.”